October 5th 2013: More Pianos and Ring Making in Boston

Today, I had an appointment to learn how to make rings at Stonybrook Fine Arts in Boston. That was only to start in the evening, so I had all day to go find more street pianos like I was doing on Wednesday.

The first one was at Cunningham Park at the corner of Sparhawk Street and Murdock Street in the Brighton area of Boston.

Next was the one in Washington Square in the city of Brookline.

At the JP Licks branch in the Jamaica Plain area, after taking a picture of the pink piano there,

I decided to head inside and get some ice cream,

 getting the Butter Cashew flavor, which was deliciously creamy and tasteful.

From here, it was on to more pianos until I reached the Boston Nature Center.

Theodore Parker Church

Adams Park

Hyde Park Community Center,
1179 River Street

It was sad to see the state of the piano outside the Everett Square Theater, which had some of its paper flowers torn off.

After taking the picture of the piano at the nature center,

I decided to take the opportunity to walk the trails here, the path I took being shown below in pink.

Unfortunately, there were not much views to be had here, except for some okay ones of the wetlands.

The nature center itself was pretty small as well.

After leaving the place, I visited the piano at the Zebra Entrance to the Franklin Park Zoo,

then headed to the Gertrude Howes Playground, passing by the United House of Prayer for All People at 206 Seaver Street

along the way.

Gertrude Howes Playground

More pianos were to come

Whittier Street Apartments

Boston University Medical Campus

before I headed to Castle Island.

The views of the sea and Fort Independence from the island were simply awesome.

Fort Independence

Unfortunately, tours of the fort are only given on Sundays this time of year. Thankfully, I could still see the inside of the fort from outside.

I was a little hungry by now, so I decided to head to the only food place on the island, Sullivan's, which sells fried seafood and sandwiches, of which I got a small plate of Fried Clam Bellies, which were actually pretty good.

From here, it was on to more pianos,

Villa Victoria Center for the Arts

Boston Center for the Arts

North End Park

Hostelling International

Josiah Quincy Community School

Liberty Hotel

Old North Church

DCR Hatch Shell

visiting several places in town

Hostelling International

North End Park

Statue,
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England

DCR Hatch Shell

At the Esplanade

Museum of Fine Arts

until it was time to head for my ringmaking class. I have to say, the best piano I have seen to date was the one at the Museum of Fine Arts.

At the Stonybrook Fine Arts Studio, we did not have to wait too long before the class started. As always, we were shown examples of rings that were made before.

We were then told to size our rings using a ring of rings with sizes marked on them. I decided to go with 7.5.

After selecting a suitable piece of copper, the first step is to heat it up such that it becomes softer and easier to work with, evidenced by a change in color as one passes the flame over the copper.

After cooling the copper, it is time to put designs into the copper, using several different kinds of tools to get the desired design.

Letter Stencils

Stamping Tools

Machine for imprinting patterns

Our instructor demonstrated to us how to use each tool.

Stamping the Copper

Stenciling Letters

Imprinting patterns

The resultant pattern

After finishing the design of the ring, it is time to reflatten it out to ready it for cutting.

Taking care to ensure that the design on the copper is not to be cut off when sizing the ring during the design of the ring, the length of copper to be used for a particular ring size and metal thickness is determined from a chart.

Determining metal thickness

The chart

The end of the piece that is not cut has to be filed first to ensure perpendicular edges.

The length of copper required is then measured

and marked for cutting using a compass.

The unwanted part of copper is then cut off using a small handsaw.

The last part of the piece is usually hard to cut completely off and can be twisted off.

After filing the new end of the copper to be perpendicular as well, it is time to bend the piece to form a ring,

with the ends to be soldered together being flattened and brought together to fit snugly to ease the soldering process.

It is then time to do some soldering, in a similar way that I did when I was making a pendant here.
After first cleaning the ring in concentrated acid,

pot of acid

then painting some flux on the part of the ring that needs to be soldered,

the ring is then positioned for soldering.

The flux is then burned off,

upon which the medium solder is placed on the crack

Medium solder

and melted to seal the crack. The soldered ring is then cleaned in the acid again, and after washing the acid off, the ring is then made round using a circular rod and a mallet.

The final step involves polishing the ring, both inside and outside

 to make the final product.

Finally it was time for us to make our own rings. For design, I decided to make it simple and stamp my name on it.

Letter A Stencil

Stamping my name

The end result

After everything, my resultant ring wasn't too bad at all.

Next, we were to make another ring, this time made of silver.

I have to say, this piece definitely turned out better.

After being done with my rings, I decided to find one more piano, located at the Strand Theatre which had not been open in the morning.

This time I had success.

From here, I decided to head to dinner in town, going to Merengue, a pretty nice Mexican bar restaurant in the Roxbury area.

After looking at the menu, I decided to get the Queso y Salami Frito (Fried Cheese and Dominican Salami), the Frituritas (Fried Meat Sampler Platter) and the Almejas en Salsa Criolla o Ajo (Mussels in Creole and Garlic Sauce) for appetizers, the Tostones Rellenos de Langosta y Camarones (Fried Green Plantain Cups Filled w/ Lobster & Shrimp) for my main dish, and Flan for dessert.

Queso y Salami Frito

Frituritas

Almejas en Salsa Criolla o Ajo

Tostones Rellenos de Langosta y Camarones

Flan

I have to say, all the dishes were pretty good, especially the fried cheese and salami, and the sauce for the mussels. A recommend from me.

With that, great dinner to end a fun day of piano hunting and making rings. I just hope the ring fits the finger of whoever I give it to.